With the crisis associated with diminishing amounts of fossil fuel and the rapidly increasing prices for this fuel, there has been a great deal of interest in reducing the amount of fuel consumed by automobile engines, and the like.
Thus, there is a great need to find lubricants that reduce the overall friction in the engine, thus reducing the energy requirements thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,684 teaches lubricating oils containing sulfurized fatty acid amides, esters or ester-amides of alkoxylated amines, which reduce friction between sliding metal surfaces in internal combustion engines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,486 teaches lubricating oils containing certain acid esters having double bonds or the dimer or trimer of such acid esters. Reductions in fuel consumption in an internal combustion engine are claimed by using the lubricating oils in the crankcase of the engine.
So far as is known, no effort has been made to place lubricating oils containing the alkane-1,2-diols of this invention in the crankcase of an internal combustion engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,538 teaches a process for lubricating aluminum in an aluminum-shaping operation with a lubricant comprising a mineral oil and 0.1 to 30 volume percent of a C.sub.10 -C.sub.30 1,2-diol.